Suzano Kicks off Second 60,000-Tonne/yr Tissue PM in Brazil

In late November, Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano started up its second tissue paper machine (PM) in the country, after a Real 540 million ($167.5 million) investment. The new PM is installed at the Imperatriz mill, Maranhão state, with capacity to produce 60,000 tonnes/yr of tissue paper. Another 60,000 tonnes/yr tissue PM was also fired up at the company’s Mucuri mill in September.

At first, Suzano detailed that the Imperatriz PM will only produce jumbo rolls, but the company plans to begin converting tissue products in early 2018 to directly serve end-users’ markets in the Northern and Northeastern regions of Brazil. "Tissue per capita consumption in these two regions is still lower than the Brazilian average, and we also believe that the economic recovery will boost even further the local demand for sanitary paper," commented Suzano’s CEO Walter Schalka.